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Topekan Tom Dudley has swum five times a week at the Downtown YMCA for years.

This Friday, he might swim his last lap.

The pool at the Downtown YMCA, 421 S.W. Van Buren St., will close indefinitely starting Friday, the agency disclosed Monday. The decision should save the agency $200,000 a year — an attempt to combat dwindling funds and increasing operating costs.

“It has a lot has to do with age of Downtown Y and the cost of operating a pool as large as the pool we have here,” Charlie Lord, president and CEO, said Monday. “It just got to the point that we have to do something, and this was the most effective thing we could do to help our cash flow and finances.”

The YMCA also will be shortening its hours.

Starting June 2 and for the foreseeable future, the downtown location will close two hours earlier, and the Southwest YMCA pool, 3536 S.W. Chelsea, will close one hour earlier.

Also, the downtown and North Topeka locations will be closed Sundays in June, July and August, he said.

The moves are expected to save another $5,000 this summer, he added.

While slashing costs was the primary factor behind the decisions, the lap-only pool downtown didn’t fit the family-oriented mission of the agency or the needs of 65 percent of the membership, who are families, Lord said. The downtown location also struggles with use, as people continue to move out of central Topeka.

The news discouraged Dudley, who visited the front desk Monday to ensure he could get a refund for the months he won’t use this year. He said he was pulling for the “12th-hour miracle” Lord told him it would take to keep the downtown pool going.

“This is a terrific place to swim,” he said. “It’s what a Y ought to be like.”

The Topeka YMCA will work with those who want refunds, Lord said. It also has decided to offer frequent downtown pool users a free pass for one month, so they can try out the other branches, he said.

Two-parent families can have access to the three YMCA facilities for $708 a year, or $59 a month. Single adult memberships cost $516 a year or $43 per month.

“We want them to get used to and to feel at home with our other two Y facilities,” Lord said.

But Dudley doesn’t plan on that. The downtown pool, he said, is a lap pool only, aside from a few aerobics classes. The nearest pool to him, 1936 N.W. Tyler St., is geared more toward children, and the other, 3536 S.W. Chelsea, is across town, “where the rich folks live,” he said.

“We need to take care of the people on this side of town,” Dudley said. “We need to take care of the people who really need it.”

The closure also will affect as many as 12 lifeguards and instructors, Lord said, but there should be opportunities for them to work at the other locations.

Lifeguard Zac McCall, 24, has applied to be a custodian at the downtown location. If that falls through, he said, he doubts he could get another lifeguard job this summer — those positions at the other YMCA locations likely already are filled. Instead, he has turned to the classifieds on Craigslist.

McCall, who said he usually logs about 35 hours a week at the Downtown YMCA, estimated at least 20 people swim during his daytime shift. He said he was surprised by the announcement, which he officially learned Monday.

“The pool draws a lot of people, so that might not be a good move in the long run,” McCall said. “If it was part of a plan to close down more of the facility, that would make more sense.”

Lord said he didn’t expect any more cuts to services for a while.

The space of the 120,000-gallon indoor pool will sit unused for now, he said. The board will spend the next few months trying to determine a future for the space, whether that is renovation or, perhaps, reopening the pool if the agency can bring in the necessary cash flow.

There is a chance the downtown pool could reopen eventually, Lord said, but the agency has to get its finances in order first.

The Topeka YMCA’s 2012 tax filing indicates it brought in $4.1 million in revenue, compared to almost $4.3 million the year before. With operating expenses at $4.2 million, the agency overspent revenue by $127,195. It ended 2012 with $267,080 cash on hand.

Finances have been a struggle since the economic downturn in 2008, Lord said. Contributions are the main culprit, especially when paired with the increasing costs of operations. Between 2011 and 2012, contributions fell $171,350.

The downtown pool costs $200,000 per year to operate, but that cost goes higher every year, he said. The pool’s filtering system, he said, is 43 years old.

“The cost of operating the Downtown Y as a whole, and the pool in particular, just gets more expensive every year as the building gets older,” Lord said. “It’s just become very costly to operate, considering the number of participants we’ve had using it.”

The downtown pool regularly attracts between 50 and 100 “hardcore users,” with another 100 or so who swim occasionally, he said. That compares to the 1,000 at the southwest branch and more than 400 at the north location, he said.

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The YMCA has been struggling for a few years and has not made any effort to engage the community in any way. They have failed to initiate creative events for which money could have been raised and could have supplemented other endeavors for long term sustenance. Many of their programs have dwindled at a time they should have been promoted and expanded. They have knowingly taken no action at a time when a failing business should be engaged in marketing new ideas and programs, promoting itself, involving itself with community projects, etc. The option of taking no action has led them to this point.

As far as the subsidizing of their scholarship program for the low income families, this is funded by activities and donations throughout the year and always has been. This is not the reason for their money problems. Their financial problems rest in failure to engage in revenue generating programs and projects, with top heavy administration positions and with allowing staff positions to be filled by employees who fail to perform but are maintained anyway.

It is unfortunate their board has not taken proactive measures long ago to avoid the serious crisis that has been long known was inevitably going to occur as each year passed showing worsening financial positioning. Hopefully, having to take such a drastic move as to close the downtown pool indefinitely will shake the tree swiftly enough to salvage our YMCA as it serves a tremendous role in our community to our families, youth and seniors.

The North YMCA pool area is not large enough to accept all the folks who swim at the Downtown Y. There are many disabled and older members at the North YMCA and adding additional lap swimmers and classes will make it very difficult for those folks to work out. This is sad. I sure wish there was another solution.

Does Charlie Lord need to be replaced? As kalaks said, there are virtually no revenue generating programs. There is also a huge amount of competition, with newer and nicer facilities. If you just want a place to work out, the YMCA doesn't have much appeal. The sauna, steam and spa are in just as poor condition as the pool. I thought their new location out with all the wealth in southwest Topeka would save them but I guess not. Not much incentive to pay so much money every month for a location that is over 40 years old, and without money, they can't afford to maintain anything. Closing the pool is a start, but closing the entire building and selling the land will be the end result. There will still be 2 locations in Topeka, which is 2 more than Lawrence, Manhattan or most other cities in Kansas have.

Doesn't anyplace operate within their budget?
It seems money is thrown here and there with no fiscal responsibility.
First: how much is Mr President/ CEO pulling down?
And nobody knew anything until it was so bad it had to close?
Well, probably after it's closed for a while, they'll decide
that the only cure is a brand new multi-million dollar facility.
How's things going with the Crestview pool?
You know it was totally unfixable and
apparently did not respond to maintenance!

A bunch of Y members objected several years ago to the building of the southwest Y on borrowed money rather than having a capital campaign for it. We were concerned that money otherwise earmarked for upkeep of the downtown Y would be diverted for payment of the loan service. We were right. They're paying thousands of dollars a month in interest payments and letting the downtown Y go down the tubes. If I wasn't one of the suffering members of the downtown Y I'd be gloating and saying "told you so".

Charlie Lord announced soon after the first of this year his intentions to retire at the end of this year; so, it won't be anytime soon that an agency reorganization will be able to lend itself to a remedy. Of course, that is dependent on who is selected to replace Charlie Lord's position and whether the new person will cut the cream off the top and enforce organization and efficient personnel hiring and placements.

The YMCA operates each of it's 3 facilities separately; therefore, there are allowed variances in processes and procedures at each facility and there are staff appointed as the 'Directors' at each facility. They also similarly staff each facility with a person designated as the 'head' of health and fitness, aquatics, the front desk duties, etc. As a result, there is no uniformity in ultimately any facet. Their operating structure is inefficient, financially wasteful, and unproductive. A lot of staff and staff salaries all performing similar functions at each Y facility.

It is quite disingenuous to blame the financial failure of the Topeka YMCA on the economic conditions in 2008; while those conditions would obviously have had an impact, alone, they would not have created the continued deterioration of it's finances and general operations. This excuse may have worked in 2008 and a couple of years, at best, thereafter, but, that excuse wore out some time ago. It is also unacceptable that the YMCA Board, having been fully apprised for many years of the progressive financial revenues, have not demanded and invoked changes in staff and operational reorganizations.

Now, at the midnight hour, Charlie Lord and the Board are crossing their fingers and holding their breath. All of which could have been avoided and should have warranted attention and immediate actions. The saddest part, it is the community that will feel the impact and the low income youth and their families.

The article states the Y is going to offer refunds to those members who request such due to the closing of the pool. And then states that the Y is going to offer a one month free pass to those who are frequent pool users so they can become 'familiar' with the other activities the downtown Y has to offer. What sense does this make? They close the pool due to cost, yet, while doing so, they are going to refund fees and lose members. Members who represent the opportunity to generate more revenue throughout the year.

Also, while there is mention of the $200,000 cost to operate the swimming pool annually, there is no mention of the revenue that was realized from the pool annually. Those revenues should include the number of members who join solely to have use of the pool as well as those who join so they may have access to a pool as they wish. Additionally, there are revenues generated via swimming classes and lessons as well as from renting the pool out for parties and other occasions throughout the year.

It is also interesting that Charlie Lord seems to be diminishing the usefulness of the downtown facility but the fact is there are a lot of folks who work downtown that only get memberships for the purpose of working out before and after work and during lunch hours. Additionally, many of those same businesses offer reduced YMCA memberships to their employees. It would be interesting to know the answers to a lot of these questions. The YMCA is an important part of our city and it is also supported by a large number of people who donate generously, attend fund raising activities, etc., and the answers are important as a result.

Another thing....in re-reading the article I noticed it states, "Two-parent families can have access to the three YMCA facilities for $708 a year, or $59 a month. Single adult memberships cost $516 a year or $43 per month". Why do they only refer to two-parent families? Single parent families are very much representative of a large portion of the low income populace; why exclude single parent families by only referencing two-parent families?

And, one more thing....has anyone ever tried to find out who sits on the YMCA Board? I have been trying to use Google and have not been successful. I am sure if I wanted to make a special trip to one of the YMCA facilities, I could find that information out but it would seem it should be an easier task than to have to do that. It is usually relatively effortless to find out who is on a Board of Directors as that information is commonly listed on an organization's website. But, I am either missing something that is right in front of my face or it is information that is not made accessible to the public without incurring a more persistent effort.

Good luck kalaks getting the names in the board. By federal law they are required to provide this information. I had issues with the Y and called downtown to get the information. They would not provide me this information. At one time Jim Parrish and Ted Ensley were in the board. Don't know if they still are or not. Hopefully the Y can be turned around.

Here is the link for YMCA 2012 Form 990 information from Guidestar.org. They have a great site on which you can locate information on not-for-profits. You might need to setup an free account to access. As stated in a previous post, not-for-profit Form 990's are required to be made public upon request.

The CEO was too nice to say it, but the Y Board borrowed $8-$10 million to build the SW Y many years ago, rather than raise the money to build it. Some of the debt has been paid off, thanks to fund raising efforts initiated by the CEO and some Board members over the past several years, but there is still a huge amount owed and coming due, and it is dragging down the entire Y. The "money people" in town were approached to help out and they said to close the pool.

Seems like they should be targeting workers downtown. Most company's now day's push a health program to lower health care costs. This would be a win, win. You need to target the right audience. Downtown supports downtown not sure why no one has come up with this. Offer the facility early mornings to these people only to help out. You need to start thinking outside the box. Let the other Y's support the family side.

The downtown Y will have to close down it's swimming pool because of monies that were diverted in order to build the SW Y.
So now - all of the Auburn-Washburn folks have a [relatively] brand new facility - while the folks who have been loyal members frequenting the downtown branch for years (if not decades), will have to do without a pool.
This basically is just a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Whoever heard of a YMCA that didn't have a swimming pool? Many of today's members probably learned how to swim at the downtown YMCA. I know, because I was one of them (at the 9th & Quincy facility).
It's really sad that rather than come up with a viable financial plan of action, Mr Lord has elected to discontinue yet another service offered by our downtown Y. The last service he discontinued was the keyed locker service. This was a service offered by the downtown Y whereby the member would receive a key to the locker of their choice, and wasn't required to bring his/her own pad lock. Charlie Lord discontinued that service last year because, as he suggested - it was getting to expensive and too many keys were being lost. I think was he should have done - was enforce the policy of paying $5 per lost key, and that problem would have corrected itself. After all, the locker key program worked just fine for 41 years. But suddenly after all that time - it didn't work any more. Now why is that. And NOW - now it's the pool we're gonna lose. After the pool - then what's it gonna be I wonder!
Maybe instead - it's time Charlie Lord just went ahead and retired, and we get someone in there who can actually enforse existing policy, and set up a financial plan of attack that will allow the downtown Y to maintain ALL of it's existing services. We've already lost enough.

The North YMCA has a few lanes at 84-86 degrees ( for elderly and therapy mostly)
The Southwest Y has 4 lanes.
The YWCA has 4 lanes.
Not sure if Washburn is open for public lap swimming anymore.
Hummer Sports Park has 22 lanes from 11-2, and 3 lanes from 5-6:30 pm. (79 to 81 degrees)
Blaisdell at Gage Park will open next week with a few, as will most of the outdoor pools, including Shawnee County north.